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Running until October 13 is Expo 2025 in Osaka — the third time Japan has hosted the world fair. There are more than 150 country pavilions, and standing prominently beside the Japan Pavilion this year is the Women’s Pavilion in collaboration with Cartier. Shining a light on gender equality, the space is the brand’s second time partnering with the Women’s Pavilion; when it debuted at the 2020 Expo in Dubai, it was the first standalone Women’s Pavilion conceived by a corporate entity.
Commitment to women is an important aspect of Cartier’s corporate social responsibility programme. In addition to partnering with UN Women, which works for gender equality, the maison has the Cartier Women’s Initiative, which supports female entrepreneurs behind sustainable, social and environmental impact businesses.
The house joins several other watch and jewellery brands that are increasingly focusing on women. On International Women’s Day in March, Pomellato launched its eighth annual campaign under its Pomellato for Women initiative, which this year highlights domestic violence via a series of video portraits featuring renowned actors and activists, including Jane Fonda. Meanwhile, watchmaker Tag Heuer earlier this year became the official timekeeper and partner of the F1 Academy, a racing series that aims to increase female participation in motorsport.
This year’s Women’s Pavilion, like the expo itself, is closely aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the expo marking the five-year countdown to the initiative’s 2030 target date. Gender equality is number five of the 17 SDGs, and a theme that is embodied by this year’s Women’s Pavilion. Lead architect Yuko Nagayama notably repurposed material from the Japan Pavilion that she designed for the 2020 Expo in Dubai — the first time building materials from past expos have been reused.
Inspired by the traditional Kyoto machiya townhouse with a play of interior and exterior space and featuring vegetation from local mountains, the Women’s Pavilion is about connecting to themes of inheritance, says Nagayama. “The issue of women’s empowerment needs to be carried forward, into the future,” she explains.
Also with a link to the previous expo is the pavilion’s artistic lead Es Devlin, who made history in Dubai as the UK Pavilion’s first female designer. For the Women’s Pavilion this year, Devlin created an immersive experience that aims to “take a sidestep from that national identity and look at our identity much more collectively, as women are 50 per cent of the population”, she says.
Her vision highlights the journey of three women: the Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto, Sudanese poet and activist Emi Mahmoud and Mexican climate activist Xiye Bastida. They narrate maze-like journeys that are anchored in various intimate objects — a pair of glasses, a child’s toy — which Devlin calls “memory palaces” that she hopes will trigger individual responses and experiences. “All these three women have experienced quite profound grief and pain, but they all find that enzyme to catalyse pain into agency, activism, poetry, life,” says Devin.
Yoshimoto says: “Participating in a rare event like the expo, even in a small way, felt like an opportunity that doesn’t come by often.” On gender equality, she says she “strongly” believes Japan still faces significant challenges compared with other countries. “The invisible constraints that are spread within Japanese society are significant. I believe change must be driven by the younger generation,” she says. “My hope is that visitors will recognise that women are now entering a new, unprecedented era.”
Inspiring the next generation is a key message, with Cyrille Vigneron, formerly Cartier’s chief executive and now chair of Cartier culture and philanthropy, stressing “the importance of inspiring future visitors of all ages to become change-makers within their own communities and beyond”. There is some light-touch corporate branding in the Women’s Pavilion, such as a virtual reality installation by French actor, director and regular Cartier collaborator Mélanie Laurent.
The pavilion is also hosting some 180 sessions and panels during the expo, covering themes linked to the SDGs, such as creating sustainable urban spaces and fostering change through the arts.
Later this month, Cartier will use the platform for its 2025 Impact Awards, which will celebrate the work of key fellows of its Women’s Initiative.
Broadcaster James Chau is a Hong Kong-based World Health Organization goodwill ambassador for the SDGs. Global events such as the expos, he says, feel more timely and crucial than ever. “I am acutely aware of the risks facing the multilateral system,” he says. “Yet, precisely because of these challenges, there has never been a more vital time to push ahead and seize the chance for meaningful change.”
Cartier’s participation in the expo aligns with the event’s values of craftsmanship, innovation and cultural leadership, Chau adds. “For a house like Cartier, such a major event is an opportunity to elevate brand prestige. But I also see it as a vital space for dialogue, understanding and tolerance — especially at a time marked by fear, division and global uncertainty.”
Devlin, a Cartier collaborator since 2018, is drawn to the idea of a pavilion that goes against the concept of national identity and is an “assertion of otherness”, she says, likening the Women’s Pavilion to a musical instrument. “It’s like a Stradivarius that has to be played now by women: meeting, finding connections, learning and speaking. Hopefully it becomes a safe place,” she says.
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